A R.A.W. Deal
Don Byczynski remembers exactly what his wife told him when he proposed gutting the entire basement of the couple’s Lake In The Hills home and converting it into a recording studio.
“She said, ‘As long as I can’t hear anything, fine,” Byczynski, who goes by dB, says, seemingly still unable to believe it himself.
Why then, after putting the time and money into making your own basement a professional recording studio, would you close the doors less than a year later?
In February, just four months after opening BOTA (the first two letters from each of his boys’ names – Bode and Taeo) Studio, Byczynski was contacted by Josh Feldman and Ryan Mills, owners of Recording Artist Workshop Studio, which, believe it or not, opened in Lake In The Hills at almost the exact same time as BOTA.
“They opened in November as well. So both studios, less than 1.8 miles from each other, opened up at the same time,” Byczynski explains. “I had no idea they were here; they had no idea I was there, which was kinda weird.”
Feldman and Mills, impressed with Byczynski’s resume and discontented with their own head engineer, reached out to the 37-year-old with a proposition.
“They built the place by hand. They were the ones who did everything; their blood, sweat, and tears went into this place,” Byczynski says. “We got to talking, one thing led to another, and then about July we said ‘You know what? Let’s just do it all together. We all have the same vision. We’re all about the bands.”‘
So, to clear up a slightly confusing situation, BOTA Studio is now technically R.A.W. Studio, or operating under the R.A.W. banner. All services come from R.A.W., but Studio A is the “BOTA Room,” where Byczynski does what he does best: make heavy metal.
If you recognize his name you were likely kicking around the Chicago metal scene in the late ’80s to mid ’90s when Byczynski was the guitarist in Fleshhold (Soulfly drummer Joe Nunez was also a member), a death metal band he started in 1989. Though Fleshold is still active, Byczynski left in 1995, after the group’s label, Massacre, folded its American branch.
The recording bug bit him while Fleshold recorded its Massacre debut, Pathetic, at Tanglewood Studios in Brookfield. The reaction was so strong that after Fleshold, Byczynski returned to Tanglewood, learned the ropes from Chuck Mack and Larry Sturm, and eventually became the head engineer.
Ironically, though, his biggest success didn’t come with a metal band; it arrived in the form of a retro swing group from Detroit. “The Atomic Fireballs called me up and asked if I wanted to produce their album because they were going to start shopping around,” Byczynski explains. “They came in, we recorded the album, they got signed to Atlantic Records, and as they took off I pretty much took off with ’em.”
Byczynski’s studio gig with the band turned into much more when The Fireballs landed a slot on the 1998 Warped Tour and hired the producer as their live sound engineer, a job that eventually morphed into a full-blown tour manager.
“They said they got three dates on Warped Tour and said, ‘Since you did our album, do you want to do our sound?’
“Those three days turned out to be two-and-a-half years on the road with them, and there were no breaks between, so it was zero to 100 with those guys.”
Nowadays life still moves pretty fast for Byczynski, but it’s back to normal in one significant way: He’s doing metal again.
“I’m metal at heart. I’ve been in the scene since 1982 when I was pen-palling with guys from the West Coast like Metallica and Exodus,” he says. “That’s where I’ve been, and that’s the music I love.”
Prior to opening BOTA, Byczynski started exploring Myspace for local talent, and it didn’t take much digging to discover there was definitely demand for a heavy metal specialist such as himself – especially a heavy metal specialist whose rates start at $35 per hour.
“There’s really not a lot of places that understand heavy, extreme death metal. With that kind of genre of music, people either love it or hate it, and you might get an engineer who hates that stuff, and they’ll probably turn out crap work. Then the band has to live with that recording.
“If bands want to do a demo, it shouldn’t be demo-sounding.”
But, now that Byczynski is part of the big, happy R.A.W. team, what came of that professionally designed, basement studio space?
“I have really nice soundproof rooms for the kids to play in,” Byczynski says, laughing.
“They can scream their faces off and we don’t even care. It’s like, ‘Go nuts!'”
BOTA and R.A.W. are located at 8595 Pyott in Lake In The Hills. Call (224) 515-0490 or visit www.recordingartistworkshop.com for more information.
Fierce Atmosphere‘s new album, The Nashville, TN/ Rochester, NH Sessions, is now out. All tracks were recorded in those cities except vocals and some additional guitars, which were recorded at guitarist Eric J. Gosselin‘s own RADIANCE MUSIC SERVICES studio in Champaign.
At LINDER AVENUE RECORDING in Roselle, Illinois Entertainer contributor Mike O’Cull and his project, Whiskey Diamond Rain, recorded tracks . . . Michael Riser was back and recorded additional songs that will appear on his fall CD release . . . Changing Vibrations began tracking material for a debut full-length CD . . . Dom Palmisano engineered all the sessions.
At PRAGMA STUDIOS in Chicago, The Victory Gins recorded and mixed its upcoming EP, Ego, Check, with Adam Newman . . . Sun Fallen finished a seven-song EP; Dan Wean recorded and mixed . . . Ryan Staples worked on a full-length with The Joans.
At RECORDING ARTIST WORKSHOP STUDIO in Lake In The Hills, Thyateira and dB completed mixing the band’s album, Beholder . . . Local metal act True Metal Conspiracy finished a full album with dB . . . Aftermath tracked a two-song demo with producers Ryan Mills and Josh Feldman . . . Man The Mighty hired dB to produce its upcoming CD, due out late this year.
Chicago-based indie rock act Twilight Revival worked on its debut full-length, Parlor, at RED WALL STUDIOS in Chicago with engineer/producer Michael Paeth. The band tracked to tape using Red Wall’s vintage analog gear, and hopes to have final mixes done this month. Look for the album (the follow-up to a 2007 self-titled EP) to be released via Mile Long Records later this fall.
Rock/metal act What worked on its first album, Insight, and songs “The Devil’s Got Ya,” “Rise Up,” and “This Is Wisdom,” to name a few, at SPIRAL GROVE STUDIOS in Aurora. Tony Montana produced.
Hey Studiophiler: To get your studio or band listed in “Studiophile,” just e-mail info on whom you’re recording or who’s recording you to ed@illinoisentertainer.com, subject Studiophile, or fax (312) 930-9341. We reserve the right to edit or omit submissions for space. Deadline for the November issue is October 15th.
– Trevor Fisher
Category: Columns, Monthly, Studiophile
